What about the chimes, will them be included?

Not in this release. I have yet to get the sound stuff working, since I've been caught up in more important funtionalities. I'm looking into it for the final release.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to do autofit for this panel? I don't want to leave it up to the exact code b/c of the list, it would get too big on DS. It works great in a stack, but if the user doesn't put it in the stack, I want to know how big or small it should get. Any ideas?

I think I am going to make autofit adjust to the size of the panel until it hits 150 then keep it static.

Also, as an option for a later release, should I put in the option to make the list work Right to Left?

RTL would be great.

i thought you'd like that GoMa. for some reason though, the details window doesn't display hebrew at all. do you know how to set up a details window to use hebrew as well as english?

What do you mean by not displaying Hebrew?

slight change of plans. as i am having difficulties with the alert window, i think i will try to get the mp3 sound stuff working for the pre release.

fauxpaux: MP3 funtionality is working, multiple alarms is coming, the how long until alarm won't come till later, but i am working on it.

Everyone: This panel is making progress. I am hung up on the alert problem I've been having, I want to get the activatepanel function working, and I have to implement the uptime alarm, and then I think I am ready to release the next version.

Thanks to GoMa, the Alert Window works once again. If it is not working for you, see the post in the Bugs forum on the issue. Second, Activate Panel strangely started working as well.
Thanks to mattisking, the play MP3 on alarm trigger now works. I decided to add the sound capabilities to the next release since the alert window was broken, but alas, you can have both.

Still working on Uptime alarm, and then basic testing. Might need some volunteers....

OK. Uptime alarm now works, thanks to mattisking as well. I would rather have a few people test this out before making it public, so if you would like to help me test it, please PM me.

This panel has now moved into the beta testing phase. A couple of people are using the panel to see if there are any problems. I've fixed some that I've found, and it is a stable panel. If you'd like to test it, I'd still like a few more volunteers. PM me if you want to try it out.

The first release of this panel used the default icon for the "Add Panel" dialog. I have been looking for a new icon to use and I haven't found one that I like. I'm taking suggestions and submissions for an icon for this panel. Please help me find a good icon!

How about the clock icon from http://www.entity.cc/ICONS/furniture-icons.php ?

this panel is really frustrating me. i cant find the source of the crashing. i'm almost ready to give up.

I assume some of the C# programmers here will be glad to help you if you send them code.

I will be happy to try, although generally I'm not too good at this crashing/leaks/performance stuff.

heres the funny thing. it works fine most of the time on all computers. i have been trying random things, and got stranger errors. now, it seems to work, after making alarms in a class, instead of a struct b/c of referencing problems. I'm hoping it will make it more stable. i'm going to keep trying b/c i dont like to give up, but we will see.

Development Update: OK, I have made a lot of changes to this panel to see if I can root out some of the problems. I *think* the problem with the context menu crash is gone, since I removed the embedded submenu. I also got rid of what I think were faulty references and cleaned up the code a lot. I put error checking in almost every funtion of code. It is out for testing for at least one person.

I really want to get this panel out b/c I have been finding it very useful when it works. I added editing capability since it wasnt that difficult. I am saving a few features for a later release.

Update: mattisking thinks that the crashes are caused by the way I implemented timers. I have to rethink the way I will use them, and hopefully things will work as desired.

Another update: mattisking is helping me work out the bugs in this panel. minus a minor setback in mp3 funtionality, we may be able to loop the music file and i think i'll do a little bit of work on the properties dialog. I think the current ideas for the properties dialog are as follows:
-automatically delete one time use alarms (as uptime alarm is pointless after the desired uptime passes, same for one time only alarm)
- right to left text
- max number of alarms
- snooze time - when snooze is implemented
- default music path.

if you can think of anything else, please post them. thanks

would anybody like the option to change the date format from mm/dd/yy to dd/mm/yy? i know its different in other countries than here in the US, and i was wondering if ppl want that option.
also, the RTL option works in the panel itself, but not the details window. so you can name an alarm something in hebrew, but not view the text in the details window.

OK, it's on the list, Prism. It will be easy to implement. Anyways, thanks to mattisking, this panel is a lot more stable than before with a few important fixes, the mp3 stuff is working again, and will even loop again and again till you silence it! Matt is the KING! Anyways, when we fix all the bugs, I will release the panel back to the testers to see how it goes.

Oh! Thanks for the tip Prism. I'll look into it. I'm also sure that at some point after the alarm panel is done, I will put in the code to allow for translations in both of my plugins.

This panel has gotten a lot more stable thanks to the enormous help from mattisking! I'm thinking of releasing it soon, but I'm not sure if I should wait till build 85 comes out. I find this panel really useful and I want to share it, but there are some bugs that are fixed in build 85. Do you guys want it now or wait? If you wait, I won't just let it sit. I'll prob work on some more of the features that I wanted.

I think you better release it only in the forums as a BETA version. This way you'll get more feedback that will allow you to release a better real version also to the File Forum when b. 85 is out

i like that idea. so when im back on my home computer, ill post a dspackage for those of you who want to test it. i think it is in good shape, minus the right click error which should be fixed on the next build

Thanks This is a beta version so you don't need to apologize for small bugs

sounds good to me. i'm eager to hear what everyone thinks of the new version. the new version will be posted later tonight.

OK. Here is the latest beta! You can download this and install, but know that it is a beta and there might be some bugs that have not been fixed yet. Read the entire post for instructions!

Requirements:
Windows XP
Microsoft .NET Framework

Instructions:
Adding an alarm: Right click anywhere on the panel and select either Daily Alarm, Timer Alarm, or Uptime Alarm. Daily Alarm goes off once a day. Timer alarm is set for a finite amount of time and will alert you when that time has passed. Uptime alarm will go off when your computer reaches the desired uptime. Setting them should be pretty straightforward. You can have up to 15 alarms. All times are in 24 hr format (i.e 0-23 hours).

Alarm Information: The details window of the coutner shows the amount of alarms declared, how many are on, how many are off, and how many remain that are available to be used.

Alarm Actions: You can set an alarm to show you an alert window with user specified text, or you can set an MP3/WAV/MIDI file to play in the background. The alert window will show for the amount of time set in DS's global properties, and the MP3 will loop continuously until stopped (by clicking on the counter which reads "Alarms: #"). Also, if the panel isn't activated, it will open itself up when contained in a stack.

You can quickly enable and disable an alarm by clicking on its row in the panel.

Details Window: The details window will show you the name of the alarm, its type, its actions, and the details of the actions.

To edit an alarm, right click on the alarm and select Edit. It is the same dialog you used to set it.
To delete an alarm, right click on the alarm and select Delete. If the alarm is currently playing an MP3, it will be silenced. It is removed from the list.

To clear all alarms, right click on the counter and click Clear List (might crash...happened only once).

All alarms are saved from run to run of DS. Panel Properties does not exist yet, but it remains an option on the context menu. You will just get a message telling you it's not funtional if you try it.

Thanks to:
mattisking - for MP3 funtionality, helping me debug a lot code, making this beta very stable, and for giving me countless tips to help me out.

As this is a beta, please report any problems you may find so I can fix them! Enjoy and please share your thoughs and comments in this post.
Eitan

Nice panel
I've found a few problems:

When you click the alarm item to edit it and click Cancel in the Edit dialog box, the item shows OFF but then you cannot delete it from the list since the edit option doesn't appear in the context menu.

I suggest you to set the alarm to stop playing the sound file after the first time as default. It took me a while to figure out that I need to click the Alarms:# item. Add an option to set the panel so it will loop continuously until theu ser clicks the alarm item to shut it off. Maybe you should also add an option to automatically delete an alarm after it it is off.

I'm not sure but I think that if I don't set any alarm, after a few minutes I see error messages

I also think you have a problem with the auto fit - the panel doesn't seem to auto fit itself. If you want more information about how to set the auto fit I can explain you

If I check the "Play a sound file option" but don't click the browse button it shows amessage saying that I need to enter a path to an MP3 file even though it can also be a wav file. It should show: "Please enter a path to a sound file" or something similar.

Small suggestion - add an icon to the panel . Currently there isn't any.

Last one: I think the panel should also show how much time is left until the alarm is off. A countdown timer or something

Overall, that's a really useful panel. Good work

Thanks yyy. The edit/cancel bug is new. I will look into that. I didn't notice that before. I think I know what the problem is.
As for stopping the sound file, I'm sorry it took you a while, but I listed it in the instructions. I hope you read them all the way through. The option to loop or not loop will be in the properties dialog when I do it, and so will snooze time, which doesn't exist now.
I don't know what error messages you got, and any info will be helpful
About autofit, I completely forgot about that. I'll look into that too.
Your suggestion about the message on the alarm dialog, I like it and it will be fixed.
Finally, I have a countdown timer on my to do list so that you can know how much time is left on a timer alarm, and mattisking said i can also put the current uptime in the details window of an uptime alarm. That way you know how much time is left. Also, I'm looking into an option for automatic deletion of alarms.

I uploaded a version with 3 changes suggested by yyy.
1) The dialog message that you didn't input the path to a sound file was changed to reflect that you don't necessarily need an MP3 file to have a sound play.
2) Editing an alarm and then clicking cancel in the dialog box should work now.
3) Autofit should work properly now.

Please let me know if you have any problems.

You can find the download above.

LOL. Just when I installed it, you release an update.
MUCH more stable now.

I'm glad it is much more stable. It is mostly thanks to mattisking who taught me about locking access to public arrays from multithreaded timers. I actually have another fix as there is a flaw in the Clear List function, which I think is fixed. But I'll wait to add another feature before I post beta c . Let me know if you have any problems I_M.

Alright. What the heck! Since I'm on a roll, I_M, I thought I'd release beta C. It only has two fixes but I found them pretty fast.
1) If you edit an alarm while it is playing a song, it will stop when you click OK in the edit dialog, but will crash if you try to play another song. That is fixed in this version.
2) Clear List function should work without crashing. This had to do with code being used on a Hashtable that was written for an ArrayList. Should work nicely now.

Please test it so I can put it up on the Extension Exchange.

Hello,
it is great to see you improved the panel and to know that the real release will have better options
I don't have much time to test the panel but I found out a few things:

The auto fit works but after you add an alram it doesn't Use panelParent.arrangeChildren() or something like that after you add a row so the panel will automatically fit itself.

About the loop playing, I've read all your instructions but we all know of these users who don't, I'm happy to know that there will be an option to disable it but I highly suggest you to set only single play as default. I believe that most of the users expect the panel to play the sound file once. Instead you can set the panel to stop playing the file after the alarm item is set to be OFF. But I just suggest

I haven't seen any error messages with the new version although I haven't tried it for long. If I see something again, I'll tell you.

Good work

OK. yyy, as much as I think that this alarm would make sense as repeating itself, in case you aren't at the computer (ie the alert window goes away, and you might not realize it had gone off). I will turn it off in the beta phase until I release the next main version with an option to turn it on and off. I will look into the autofit issue.

OK. Here is the latest beta! Sorry for so many versions, but I want to make sure everything is working great before I release it.
Fixes:

1) Autofit really does work now . I called the suggested function when you add an alarm and when you delete one. Should work as desired. Please test this out.

2) Properties Dialog!!! You can now specify how many alarms you would like, and you can specify if the alarm should loop when it plays a sound. More will come later on.

I assume that when people say that it works good means that there is no random closing?? That is a big step. Please test and let me know if you have any problems, even if you can't explain how they happend, I want to know. If this version works well, I will post it on the Extension Exchange as soon as I hear the reports. I am posting this version here b/c at least on my settings, we are on a new page

Eitan

Found one bug so far: If you edit an active alarm, the counters in the alarm information details window will be all messed up. Already fixed and will be in the release on the EE if people actually test it out.

Version 2.0 released! If you have a beta version, I highly recommend that you download the 2.0 version. It has the latest bug fixes. Please continue to let me know if find any problems. Feedback is welcome. Even if you don't have a bug to report, I would still like to hear your suggestions, overall experience, and constructive criticism.

SEE THE FIRST POST FOR INSTRUCTIONS AND MAKE SURE YOU READ THEM!

Don't have time to test it but just a tip - add a screenshot to the Extension Exchange

I'll look into it

Also set the Properties dialog box not to be resized. Use:
this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.FixedDialog;

fixed. thanks yyy.